"There are millions of Canadians living in short and long-term recovery from addiction to alcohol and other drugs, said Minister Ambrose. Today's roundtable was about listening to experts and community members about what we can do better to prevent our children and youth from using drugs, and to further support people in recovery from addiction."

The Minister was joined by physicians and leading addiction recovery specialists at the Cedars treatment facility where real, practical solutions to support Canadians in prevention and recovery were discussed.

While at the meeting, the Minister announced funding for A Health Promotion and Drug Prevention Strategy for Canada's Youth - a national project led by the Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (CCSA) as part of the Federal Government's National Anti-Drug Strategy. The goal of this project is to prevent illicit drug use among Canadians between the ages of 10 and 24 through education, national prevention standards and building sustainable partnerships.

"The funding from Health Canada will allow us to continue working with our partners, building on successes we've already achieved together, in order to prevent youth substance abuse in Canada, said Michel Perron, CCSA's Chief Executive Officer. More specifically, it is important to us that we can contribute to the growing field of research on the effects of cannabis use - both on the developing brains of our young people, as well as impacts on impaired driving."

"Preventing substance abuse among young people is a critical focus of the Government's National Anti-Drug Strategy, said Minister Ambrose.Through this contribution, we are helping to increase awareness among youth of the dangers of experimenting with drugs, assisting parents in keeping their kids drug-free, and ultimately keeping our communities safe and healthy."

"Cedars at Cobble Hill was honoured to host this important event today,said Neal Berger, Executive Director of Cedars. We are thrilled with the leadership of Minister Ambrose in making recovery and prevention a priority."

Through the National Anti-Drug Strategy (NADS) the Government contributes to reducing drug use among youth, and enables the development of national, provincial, territorial, local and community-based solutions for combatting drug abuse among youth.

The NADS is an ongoing strategy, announced in October 2007, carried out under three action plans:

The Prevention Action Plan, which aims to prevent drug use;

The Treatment Action Plan, which aims to treat those with drug dependencies;

The Enforcement Action Plan, which aims to combat the production and distribution of illicit drugs.

In the recent Speech from the Throne, our Government committed to expand the scope of the National Anti-Drug Strategy to include prescription drug abuse. We recognize that the abuse of prescription drugs is a serious public health and safety issue for many communities across Canada and we are addressing it head on.

The attached Fact Sheet provides more information on the projects being funded.